


If the Dark Takes You In

by Cherith



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Carroll
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-19
Updated: 2010-06-19
Packaged: 2017-10-10 04:49:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherith/pseuds/Cherith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice is walking home from her sister's house one evening, and decides to take the shortcut through the forest to get home.  She gets lost in the darkness and finds herself in a strange and frightening Wonderland. She's afraid to stop pushing forward to try and get home, and every time she turns around she finds herself somewhere new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If the Dark Takes You In

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Violence, Drug Use, Character Death  
> Author's Notes: My cracked out Wonderland borrows heavily from the scenes and ideas of the original, mixed with a little Looking Glass madness and a little modern day setting. It's a recognizable Wonderland, but filled with darkness and monsters. A big thank you to my husband and helpful beta, martiniphilosph and the lovely wtfbrain for her extremely awesome fanmix.

**IF THE DARK TAKES YOU IN**

_"__Let's pretend we're kings and queens...Well, YOU can be one of them then, and I'LL be all the rest." _   
_~Through the Looking-Glass, _Lewis Carroll_~_   


After a polite and lovely dinner with Lorinda and her family, Alice realized her afternoon had been poorly planned.  She had worked in the warm sun on the garden behind her house, and then walked the  half-mile to her sister's new house for the evening.  If she had thought better about it, she could have visited Lorinda earlier in the day (perhaps even staying for tea) and returned to work in the garden in the late afternoon. By the time the sun set she could have been safely inside her parent's home.  Since that was exactly the opposite of what she had done, by the time she left Lorinda's the sun had already set, and the dim light on the horizon threatened to wink out altogether, leaving only stars behind.  

She eyed the road before her, all dust and dirt and mud, and while it might have been well-traveled and ran just past her parent's front door, the time it would take to return home was time enough to get run-over by a carriage or tumble into a wheel rut and twist (or break) a leg.  Whereas the small patch of trees and forest across the road from her sister's house led straight through to their back door. She traveled it enough to know the way, even in the dark (she hoped) and it sheared her travel time nearly in half.  In either case, she had borrowed a candle lantern from her sister before she had left.  But ultimately, her weariness won out and the trees beckoned to her, promising a quick walk home where she could then spend her evening curled up in bed with a good book, with Dinah to keep her warm.

It was much darker under the canopy than it had seemed out on the road, but Alice pressed onward, ignoring the shadows dancing madly through the trees created by the lantern swinging as she walked.  To keep her mind occupied while she carefully managed her way, she tried to imagine what the shadow shapes could be, much like she would the clouds on a bright day.  There were several floral shapes: a rose, a lily, an orchid, that she guessed came to mind most easily because she had spent her day in the garden.  Then of course, there were always animal shapes lurking both left by real animals and those imagined: a squirrel, a deer, an extremely large rabbit on it's hind legs.  The latter seemed too bizarre and so she tried her best to ignore the shadows and focus instead on the warm fire waiting for her at home.  

Some time later, after Alice had gone through the different stages of imagining her evening: sitting by the fire, laying in bed with her book, falling asleep; she calculated that it had been some time since she set out from her sister's house.  The point of taking a shortcut was exactly that, to cut a trip short, and without that she was just wandering aimlessly in the forest at night.  She wished then for a pocket watch, like the one her brother-in-law or father wore in their waistcoasts that she could take out and figure out just what time it really was.  Watch-wishes aside, she knew the trip had already taken longer than it should have, as the lantern light dimmed.  Her legs and arms were weary, but she did not want to waste any of her remaining light by stopping to rest.

"I must have turned somewhere and not realized," she said to the forest or to no one in particular, she wasn't sure which.  However dark it seemed now, if she stopped to rest, the lantern would eventually go out completely leaving her without even a sliver of moonlight to navigate with.  So, with an exaggerated effort, she lifted the lantern a little higher, looking around her in a full circle trying to figure out where she could've gotten turned around.

"It's odd though," she murmurs once the lantern light falls on one of the trees in front of her.  "I'm certain I don't recall any shelves out here in the forest."

The base of the tree, _she glanced down to make sure_, was indeed very tree-like, bark and all.  In the place where the branches should have been however, things were very much different.  She leaned forward, her free hand stretching out just slightly to brush against the smooth wood of the shelves that formed above the rough base.  On the shelves were all manners of random ephemera: pictures and maps or food items like a funny jar of marmalade with checkerboard fabric over the lid.  She couldn't exact say why she thought the marmalade funny, but it's presence did exact some sort of giggle from her lips, although she prayed for it not to devolve into hysterics.  She considered herself much above the fainting lady hysterics so typical of many of the higher class women she had met in her life.  A little bubble of tight nerves bounced around in her chest, and after a moment she drew her hand back from the shelves and lowered both the lantern and her eyes . 

The ground was bright under her feet, dirt and leaves and fallen branches all covered what should've been a well worn grass path, and Alice sighed at the thought of the path home.  She stood for several minutes letting her breath slow, feeling the rapid beating of her heart slow to a normal rhythm.  Glancing at the lantern she realized she couldn't delay much longer, and as she silently wished for another candle to light, she picked a direction and resumed walking.

It was only a few minutes later that the lantern's candle snuffed out completely, leaving Alice alone in the dark woods.  And in the few seconds of confusion as the last of her light died, Alice managed to get her toes caught on a large branch and toppled to the ground.  She huffed, took stock of herself and once she realized nothing was seriously injured, managed to get her legs underneath her so she could sit up.  She stood slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, even blinking a few times to speed the transition.  After a few seconds she had to blink again slowly to make sure she was seeing correctly.  She was no longer standing on dirt and leaves and solid ground but a slightly dirty marble floor. 

She was not physically injured as far as she could tell, but it was very possible that something had happened to her eyes.  Instead of the dark outlines of tree branches and leaves as she expect to see as she looked up, she saw a long dimly lit corridor.  Iit strange that the light didn't extend down to her completely, but the fact that she could see the hall and closed doors lining either side, was indeed fantastic enough for her mind at the moment.  As she stared down the corridor, trying to make out the shapes of doors - they were not all rectangular - and windows, she also was able to see the fluffy twitching of a rabbit's tail (attached of course to a rabbit body) at the far end.  The rabbit she guessed was several inches shorter than she, but much, much larger than any rabbit she'd seen before and standing with it's back towards her, on it's hind legs.  _Must be a hare then and not a rabbit after all.  _She thought it must be a hare because it was larger, but in all honesty she could not be quite sure, since unless you study them up close, it can be difficult to tell the two apart.

Despite the strangeness of a hare walking on hind legs, and the randomly appearing corridor - which she now saw stretched behind her as well, the forest long gone - she was grateful for some normality in seeing her dress was unharmed, and still relatively clean after her tumble to the ground.  If she was going to meet new creatures, it was best that she appeared clean and well-kept.  It took several moments of staring down the hall, and behind her as well as she could without turning around, before she felt her legs would be steady enough to move her.  She forced one foot out in front of the other until she created some momentum and determined to catch up with the white hare, who seemed also to be moving forward.  But, try as she might, she couldn't seem to make any progress in catching the odd creature, and tired as she was, eventually was determined only to look for an open room. 

She let her hands graze against the walls as she walked so she could test the odd doorknob she came across, even those that didn't seem to be attached to doors.  And occasionally, as she passed one, she would give a push on a window to see if it would open.  The other side of the windows were dark, but she figured it should not stop her from trying to get one open.  Perhaps it would lead her back into the forest where she could wait for morning to try and get home.  Or, if she were lucky, if she could get through one of the many windows or doors, she'd wake up to find herself already home in bed.  None of these things happened for Alice though, and eventually, her legs were so tired and sore they shook with every step, and she had to sit down.  

The place in the corridor she had chosen to stop was nice, a little more spacious than the rest had been - she could sit in the middle and not reach either side with her arms at all.  There was a very large door off to one side, and several lovely, rich looking curtains along the wall with dark windows peeking out from around them.  She put her hands in her lap and curled down over her legs to rest and let her eyes close for just a moment.  If she rested now, she could set about more determined to find an end to the hall, or an open door later.  And if matters came to it, when her strength returned, she would consider beating a door or window open.  Of course, she would prefer not to ruin someone's lovely home just because she had taken a wrong turn in the forest.

She closed her eyes, and it wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep.  Behind closed eyes, in that in-between space where dreams wait for those that need them, Alice was greeted by the loud buzz of dozens of people chatting all at once. She was outside, it was dark, and there was music that beat so quickly it drilled into her bones.  She was weary, even in the dream, and found a red stool at a long bar, much like the one at the pub in her own town, that she could sit on.  This was no local establishment though, it was a loud raucous chaos of people in strange clothes waving their bodies around with brightly colored drinks in their hands.  She looked around in awe at the sea of people, and a woman caught her eye: beautiful, like her sister Edith, but with pale hair and skin.  The woman stared at Alice so intensely she felt her cheeks blush with the embarrassment.  Alice turned her eyes down, and gradually the noise subsided and the lights faded until she realized she was looking down at her own hands and slightly mussed blue dress. 

There was the marble floor and the dim lights, and the same corridor in which she had fallen asleep, with one addition: a red stool.  The stool was curious indeed, she could not imagine that she had been so tired  that she could have missed a piece of furniture such as it was.  Especially not one that had a single brightly colored drink resting on the flat surface of its seat.  The glass was shaped fancily, like she imagined those at fancy dress parties must be when a hostess uses dishes reserved for guests.  It was wide at the rim, with a narrow stem, and a base almost as wide and round as the rim.  In it, not quite to the top, for which she was thankful in case she should jostle it, was a bright transparent liquid; quite nearly the color pink Lorinda had done in the nursery.  It looked inviting enough, and she longed to pick up the glass taste just a little of it.

She thought herself clever though, stopping to check around the stool and on the floor for any notes of what the drink might contain and waited a bit, as if someone might come to claim it for their own.  Seeing nothing and no one after a few several long, thirsty moments, she once again turned her attention to the drink itself.  She used one hand to stroke her dress apron down into place - as she sometimes did when she was nervous - and with the other, she reached out to grab the glass, picking it up carefully as not to lose any of the liquid it contained.  It smelled decent enough, sweet like strawberries, or cherries, and the thought of fresh fruit made her stomach rumble.  With one swift motion she brought the liquid to her lips and drank.

It tasted much as Alice imagined it would, sweet and light and it tickled at her nose.  She was finished with the whole of the liquid before she knew it, and when the glass was empty, Alice delicately placed the glass back on the red stool.  She stared at the glass for a moment, as if waiting for it to miraculously refill (more curious things had happened, she thought), but it did not.  She felt full and warm, and she could feel a flush in her cheeks and the soreness and stiffness in her body relaxed.  She leaned against one of the doors after a few moments, but the calm, light-headedness did not last long enough and slumped back to the floor as a rush of tears fought their way down her face.  Not knowing what to do with herself, and embarrassed at her own outburst, she turned to bury her face in one of the curtains along the wall.

She tried to gather herself at once, with stern reprimands to remind her that she should not be ruining the curtains of such a nice place with her tears.  But it took several minutes before she could even listen to her own good advice.

"Oh come now, Alice!  If that poor strange hare found a way out of this place, surely you can too."  She thought of the odd creature she had seen (last night perhaps?) and though she shuddered, her tears halted.  When she could see without the film of recent tears on her eyes, she noticed the outline of a door beneath the curtain she was still clutching in her shaking hands.  

"See, it is not that bad, however there must be more than one door you've missed.  That gives you reason to keep looking for a way out."  The door locked when she tried it, but her resolve was already building back to normal.  She stood, determined more than before to check behind all the curtains she'd passed  for any doors she might have missed.  When she turned back around, the stool had disappeared and the empty glass was sitting lonely on the ground.  But not completely empty, there was one small, silver key resting inside and she reached down to snatch it up before it too could disappear.

She paced the hall, trying not too go too far in either direction before doubling back again to check the opposite wall.  She moved aside curtains, once knocking down a whole set - curtain rod and all - to the ground.  There wasn't much noise to the mess as they fell, the thick curtains dulling the sound.  But, she did jump back to avoid being hit by the curtain rod, squeaking as she did so.  She stood rigid and scared for several long moments afterwards, waiting to see if someone would come to investigate, but when no one did, she was again involved in her own investigation of locked doors and windows.

Finally, she found one window that was not dark on the other side as all the others had been.  It was open slightly, and from underneath, there was a small slip of light from the window mostly hidden by the curtain.  She stepped behind the curtain, so that she was certain that she could not have been seen at all by anyone who might come through the hall at that moment (not that she thought anyone really would) and stepped on her tip-toes to take a look through the small space under the window.  She gasped looking at a bright, sunlit garden on the other side.   It was beautiful, with sunshine on bright flowers of every variety she had ever seen, or read about, and even more that she could not name.  Alice was quite sure, the longer she looked out into the garden that a good many of those flowers must not exist anywhere else in the world except for right there, and her heart ached to step into the garden.

The problem being, of course, that she was already on her tip-toes just to look through the small opening.  Getting the window open the rest of the way, and then finding a way to get through it, would be trouble.  She took a step away from the window after several minutes of lazily gazing into the garden.  In order to get a better look at what she was dealing with, she pushed the curtain all the way to the far side of the window, and tried tying it around itself to keep it from getting in the way.  Alice had then what she thought was a brilliant idea to head back down the hall to grab the red stool, only to remember that it had already disappeared.

Not wanting to lose the garden too, she resolved not turn her back to the window, and instead set about to examine everything around it as closely as she could.  Occasionally, she heard the song of a bird or rustled leaves in the wind from the other side, and it only served to make her more determined.  After several long minutes of carefully searching every place on the wall around the window, and the window itself, she was rewarded.  There was a small hole in the side of the window frame right above her head, if she was standing on her toes.  She fumbled around in her dress apron pocket for the small key she'd grabbed from the inside of the glass and shakily reached her hand up to insert the key into the hole.  She heard a small click as she turned the key, and the entirety of the wall she leaned on gave way.  

She stumbled out into a dark alley, and immediately her hand went to her face to shield her nose from the stench of garbage.  She found her footing, but when she looked down several rats scurried around her and she quickly pulled a foot back to keep a rat from crawling across it.  She tried to step back into the hall, but found nothing but dark alleyway behind her.  She sighed and thought that she far preferred the clean and stately looking corridor to the dismal stinking alley.  The garden was not far from her mind however, and she hoped that this smelly place would only be a brief stop on her way to the beautiful flowers.  

Alice took a few resolute steps forward into or possibly out of the alley, she could not be sure which direction was which, and carefully picked her way over trash or rats.  One hand remained over her nose to shield it from the worst of the smell, but it did not make a huge difference, and again she lamented her pretty blue dress now certainly stained with both dirt and stench.  Thankfully, it was not but a few moments before she noticed the outline of several people standing at the end, or perhaps the start of the alleyway and momentarily forgot the smell to reach out her hand in a wave.

"Oh, excuse me!  Please, can you help me," she called.  Alice scurried closer to the group and thought she could make out three or four people, but they looked as though they were all turned away from her.  "Excuse me," she called out again. She fought for her voice to go louder, "I seem to have lost my way.  Please? Can you help?"

At the word "lost" each figure slowly turned around.  During her pleas to them, she had managed to reach the alley's exit and she could now see them all quite plainly.  They each wore strange blue trousers and short dark jackets, even the one that she was positive was a woman.  And then, she wished she hadn't been so loud, when the first of them looked at her with a human face distorted by a large yellow beak where it's mouth should have been.  Alice made a very unladylike squeal at that moment at the same time glancing between them to see that each of them had tiny, dark, beady eyes and large yellow beaks and were not at all as human as she had been hoping for.

"N-n-n-ever-m-m-i-nd," she managed finally.  "I-I-I will just be going.  I did not mean to d-disturb you."  She turned, and forgetting the rats, the trash, and the smell, ran as quickly as she could to the other end of the alley.  From somewhere behind her there were scrabbling noises and at least once there was a loud squawk of anger or frustration.

When she got there, or she assumed she reached it; there was a dark road stretching off into the distance.  It was loud, and her ears hurt as metal carriages whizzed past her.  She spared a glance back towards the alley, but it seemed the strange bird creatures had not followed her.  She stopped to catch her breath and leaned against the stone of a brightly lit shop.  After a few minutes more, when the frightening bird-humans did not appear around the alley corner, her shoulders relaxed and her heart beat a little slower.  She looked at the shop she had chosen to rest against and peered through the large window at the treasures inside.  She'd always enjoyed looking through shop windows: even if she did not have money with her, just the idea of shiny baubles lifted her spirits.  

These were no shining baubles, no soft fabrics, nothing that even looked like a shop at all.  She tested the door handle as she tried to make sense of the scene inside, and the door gave way under her hand.  She was getting used to being thrust into new rooms or new areas, and was quick to catch her footing as she swayed through the entrance.  Instead, she was in a nicely kept, and very warm (there was a bright fire on the far side of the room) little sitting room.  She thought it was little anyhow for she felt very tall standing next to what looked like a fine dining table that only came up to her knees.  

"This is like that dollhouse I shared with Edith and Lorina when I was younger," Alice murmured to herself.  It was indeed very similar to that dollhouse, in the colors and arrangements, only the size was off quite a bit.

She ran a finger along a bookshelf that came up to her waist, and bent slightly to get a look at some of the books resting there.  If she was going to be stuck in a strange place, and it was seeming more and more likely that she would be,  she might as well find a nice book to occupy her.  Maybe she would even find one that would better explain all the strangeness she had found since venturing into the woods, or at least a book that could explain where she was.  What she did not find was a single book in the Queen's English.  They all made no sense to her, and she was positive that at least one of them was not only not a real language, but was also quite possibly, written completely upside-down.  

As she stood upright, the door she had entered through slammed shut so suddenly, she jumped.  When she looked, she saw nothing extraordinary, just a plain wooden door and a small window to one side.  The large glass window she had looked through just moments ago was gone replaced by creamy white wallpaper with swirled designs in red and black and brown covering the entirety of the room.  The wallpaper itself made her slightly dizzy when looking at it, and she did her best to avoid doing so altogether.  Instead, her attention turned to investigating the rest of the  curious little house.

She found a door that lead into a small bedroom, and when she stepped inside, she saw the bed was no larger than one that might have fit her when she was ten years old.  It was covered in pretty fans with red and black marks all over them, and upon closer inspection she made out that the marks were those one would find on playing cards.  

"Such tiny details," she whispered.

There was a small dressing table off to one side of the room, and she suspected that if she tried to sit on the low stool in front of it, she might crash to the floor.  Being the curious sort, especially about what kind of person might need such a small table, she rifled through the jewelry box in the center of the table.  All she found inside was a more normal sized pair of white gloves.  They took up the entire space inside the small box, and when she pulled them out, it was clear they might fit her own hands.  They were extremely fine gloves, and as she held them, she felt the strongest desire to try them on.  Instead, she tucked them into her dress pocket, feeling only a little guilty as she did so.  She reasoned with herself, that aside from the strange bird creatures, and the hare she was increasingly uncertain she had actually seen, there had not been any proper people in this place.  Not one that would stop and talk to her and instruct her on the best way home any how.  Would that same no one that might own this curious little house really miss these gloves?  Or were they, like she assumed the drink had been, set aside for her by some mysterious or magical stranger?

Alice carried on out of the bedroom, and finding no other rooms: no kitchen or even washroom, she went to try the front door again.  She had to lean down a bit to reach the doorknob, in fact she was quite positive that the room was smaller than it had been before and certain that the door was smaller than the one she had come through.  She did hope that when she opened the door, it would not take her back out to the loud and dark street that she had entered from, but she was stopped to breathe deep and prepare for that likely possibility.  

It was startlingly loud on the other side of the door, and bright like the previous night when she had found that red stool.   People, pressed in all around her and the music she remembered from before seeped into her bones reverberating until she felt too weak to stand.  The people pressed in all around her, but none of them seemed to pay her any attention at all and Alice found she could only move forward towards a small stage near a far wall.  As she approached the stage, in the best way she could without falling down, she saw a strange man in bright purple clothes looking down at her with a smile.  He had a cigar in one hand and took a long drag from it before pushing it down into a small tray near his feet.  

Immediately, without any purpose on her part, she found herself smiling back at him and he reached out a hand to help her up onto the stage with him.  She took his proffered hand and stepped onto the stage.  He was young, close to her own age she assumed, though he wore heavy makeup around his eyes and dressed in a style that was definitely nothing she was accustomed to.  He leaned in, uncomfortably close and spoke in her ear.  She was only barely able to hear him over the music, but he spoke again just to make sure she had heard him when he said, "Hello, Alice."

Alice's eyes went wide, and she stammered for a moment before she remembered her manners and was able to mumble her own 'hello'.  Once she had done so, he released her hand and stepped back from her just to the limits of propriety.  His light blue eyes concentrated on her though his smile remained, and she felt very nervous and looked about in the crowd for some direction.  No one paid her, or the gentleman in the purple any attention, and she was forced to look back at him, finding him no different than he had been the moment before.  Eventually, she was able to gather enough courage to say, "Sir, I would like to know how it is you know who I am."

It seemed, without any effort on her part, he understood her well enough over the noise and when he responded, "I don't know, who ARE you, Alice?" she had no trouble hearing him.  In fact, when he spoke now it seemed like the music faded around her so that his voice flowed directly to her ears.  She could hear him, but did not really understand him, if he knew her name then why would he be asking who she was?  

Although indeed, it was a worthwhile question when she thought about it.  Her name was Alice, of that she was still certain, but what she was doing here in this place was a mystery to her, and without her family or her job or her garden, who was she really?   Her own questions made her more melancholy than she would have liked as they circled around in her head.   When it came right down to it, she knew did know what he meant, but he still had not answered her question.

"Maybe I do not know who I am, but please, how do you know my name?"  She turned her own blue eyes up at him pleadingly, but he only smiled.  She felt a flush on her face and looked away trying to hide her embarrassment.  

When she did look back he had a glass full of some deep amber liquid in each hand, one of them he offered to her.  It was alcohol like nothing she had tasted before, and it burned and tingled as she swallowed.  He seemed pleased to see her drink but he did not make a remark, only smiled, drained his own glass and placed the empty glass on a nearby stool.  While she sipped from her own glass, she watched him pull a few small strips of paper from a pocket in the front of his jacket.  Before she could finish her drink, which she would admit she was taking her time to finish, he took it from her hands and set in on the stool next to his empty glass.

"Here," he held out one of the white paper strips to her, "try this."  He opened his mouth, sticking out his tongue and slowly placed one of the remaining white strips on it to show her his meaning.   Alice turned the white strip over in her hand and then gently placed the strip in her mouth.   There was a slightly sweet, but still papery taste on her tongue though it quickly dissolved.  

"It is only paper?"

"Oh, no Alice."  He shook his head softly, his eyes playful and gently took her hands in his.  "But, it will help you."

"Help me what?"  

She felt less nervous when he touched her this time, and did not try to pull her hands away.  Indeed, she paid more attention to the space where their hands met, the soft tingling sensation of his warm hands on hers.  There was a lightness and warmth in his touch and she looked down at where his soft, pale hands held hers and grinned.  Her mind spun with excitement and as she watched, the skin on his hands changed from its pallid hue to a sickly yellow, and settled on a final almost shimmering blue.   

Smoke swirled around him and it drew her attention as it gathered in the space between their palms and slowly billowed back out again.  She felt dizzy and her eyes watered and she was only able to see the handsome and now blue stranger in front of her.  He told her to relax, but she was there already, having been helped by the drink, the paper, and her own girlish trust in him.  She heard herself giggle once or twice as she lost sight of him through the smoke, but his hands were firm on hers.

"Alice, come with me."  He tugged on her hands and she floated forward, only held together by specks of light and wisps of smoke. 

She lost sight of him through the smoke and the shadows as she moved, but somehow there was still a light around her, and a pressure on her hand that pulled her forward.  After a few moments, she felt a heavier warmth creep from her hand, up her arm and settle around her shoulder.  The same feeling appeared on her other shoulder and she was leaned backwards onto a billow of smoke.  Alice tried looking around, but the smoke grew thicker the more she focused on it, and there was only light flashing between wisps in different colors.  Shapes coalesced out of the smoke before her eyes and the heat traveled from her shoulders back to her arms and then her chest, stomach and legs.  It did not smother her, was not oppressive, but she felt it through her dress, and it made her restless to move, to feel more.

"You are an odd blue stranger," she mumbled.  She could make out a long outstretched blue hand before her face, it floated seemingly disembodied above her.  The second hand appeared somewhere around her legs, though she could not see it but felt it creeping up near the hem of her dress.  Her head was heavy and the flashing light around her head disoriented her enough that she did not want to move anymore.  

Besides, when she thought about it, she knew she was tired after what she assumed was a long day of exploration and confusion and after everything, lazing about on air did not seem that strange.  In fact, it was comfortable, far more comfortable than the marble floor she had slept on previously. The stranger's hands on her were gentle and warm and most of all, she felt safer that she had since she had gotten herself lost.  He laid down next to Alice and the movement created billowing rings that pushed away from them in waves.  Alice felt him next to her and thought, 'How nice it is to find a gentle stranger'.  She did not mind his hands on her as they slid under her dress and caressed her legs.  His hands toyed with with top of her long stockings, and then she could feel her delicate things carefully carefully and gently slid aside so that his hand could find the places underneath.  She thought for a moment to be surprised or outraged, but instead it was comforting.  She closed her eyes sleepily, and submitted to the touch and safety of the blue stranger that knew her name.  

In her dream, Alice saw the man in the purple suit on the stage.  He offered his hands in a motion to invite her to dance with him, and when she accepted, he twirled her down off the stage and into the crowd of people.  The loud thumping rhythm was gone, replaced with a Quadrille she knew from home and the small parties she and her sisters had attended before Lorina had gotten herself married.  They didn't dance the traditional way one should during a Quadrille and she found the intimateness of their dance far preferable to that which might include the strangers that pressed in around them.  While they danced, she knew that she was supposed to say something to him, but she could not remember what it was. She remembered the question he had asked, but felt she still did not have a suitable answer.  

She told him instead that she was indeed just Alice, and joked that she verged on the edge of becoming uncommonly old to still be of decent marrying age.  She told him that at home she read and dreamed of traveling to the places in her books.  And that, sometimes she thought all she wanted was to settle down with a family of her own, with little ones to run and play with her sister's children.  She did not think it was too much to ask, but it had not happened for her yet.  Yet, she found despite the strangeness of the place she had uncovered by getting lost in the forest, she was enjoying her stay - however curious it might be.  

He never interrupted, never answered, never asked for anything more than she keep dancing with him.  So, she danced with the stranger for what seemed like hours though she never got tired or hungry or thirsty.  Only the excitement built in her and when the music changed back to the thumping reverberation she enjoyed it well enough.  She felt her body pulse with the noise, found a sort of exhilaration in the rhythm and movement.  Her companion held her close and as they danced to the rhythm she felt not only that they were joined together somehow, but that they were one with the rest of the crowd and when the the crowd screamed, so did she also.

She awoke to a soft pressure on her lips.  The kiss was brief, and when she opened her eyes, a beautiful pale woman, haloed by bright sunlight, was leaned over her.  The woman was clothed in white, with hair nearly the color of her skin and Alice had a brief sense that she had seen the woman before.  She sat up slowly,  and examined the large round surface on which she rested; it was red with white spots and though she could not be sure, it looked like a very large mushroom.  There was enough space for her and the woman sitting next to her on the mushroom bed, and from around woman she saw similar large mushroom shaped surfaces all around theirs.  

The woman leaned in towards her again and whispered, "Good morning my dear".  

"G-Good morning miss."  Alice found her head a sort of fuzzy that meant she had been asleep for far too long; her dress completely rumpled and her dress apron in a small crumpled mass near her feet.  "I am sorry miss, but I do not know where I am, and having only just woken up..." she remembered the light kiss she had woken up to and a blush creeped into her face.  "Having only just woken up, I do not seem to be in the best shape to meet new people."

"Do not worry about that dear," the woman said as she patted Alice's arm.  

"I cannot help but worry, I have been here..." Alice looked around, realizing that she still was not sure where 'here' was.  "Well, I have been somewhere that I am not familiar with at all, for some time now.  And everything keeps changing!"

The woman chuckled.  "Yes that is the way of things here."

"Well, I am not used to it at all!  Where I come from a person can enter a room, and when they come out again, whatever was on the other side of the door before they entered is still there when they leave!  Not like this place at all."

"It can be exasperating I understand."  The woman gave her a sweet smile and then turned and slid off the edge of the mushroom.  She held a hand up to help Alice down.

"And you are the first person that has spoken with any wisdom since my arrival in this strange place."    Alice grabbed the mess that was her apron and with her free hand grabbed the woman's offered hand, sliding down to stand beside her.  She unrumpled her apron, tying it back around her before continuing.  "It is not that I do not appreciate your kindness, but I have a lot of questions."

"I am sure that you do, but I feel it is only fair to warn you that I may not answer them."  The woman ran a hand through her hair, and shrugged a sort of apology.

"Well, I thank you for the warning.  But, I still feel like I need ask someone, and since you are here, I need to ask you; if you would please tell me what this place is?  Or how I came to be here?  Or even, if you might tell me, what you name is?"

The woman shook her head.  "It might not be my name, but you are welcome to call me the White Queen, as most everyone does.  As for this place, I cannot answer, as I am not from this place."

"You don't look like a Queen," Alice remarked though she regretted saying it as soon as it was free from her lips.  "I am sorry, I did not mean...what I want to say...really, it is just that you are not dressed as one would assume for royalty to be outfitted.  And do you not have a crown?"

"Oh, one does not need to be crowned and garbed outlandishly to still be a Queen."

"I suppose that is true enough," Alice nodded.  Curiosity still gnawed at her,  but she bit back more questions and instead gave a quick curtsy, "Your Majesty".

"There is no need for all that," the White Queen reached out a hand to brush some of Alice's hair away from her face.  

Instantly, Alice was embarrassed for her disheveled appearance.  It just did not do to arrive before royalty so rumply dressed.  Not that she could explain how she had arrived here to begin with, nor how she had been placed before the White Queen.  She again remembered the kiss that woke her and her hand flew to her lips to feel them.   Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at least for her own lips, but the embarrassment remained.  _Having been kissed awake by a Queen!  I cannot imagine how I could tell anyone, and should I be embarrased?  Or honored?  _Alice chose to be honored that such a beautiful and royal woman would waken her with so soft a kiss.  

"It must be lovely to be a queen," Alice said.  Thoughts of a beautifully jeweled crown and a large throne from which she could issue her own royal decrees danced through her head.  For a moment she even pondered who she might pick to attend at her court, thinking of her friend Leo if perhaps their situations had been reversed.

The White Queen nodded, "At times, it is lovely indeed.  But not always."

"No I suppose it could not always be so nice.  And I definitely would not want to be traveling through strange places all of the time."  Alice looked at the woman, "Must you often go out into these strange places?"

"No."  There was a darkness in her expression that chilled Alice, and she was sorry she had pried.

"I am sorry your Majesty.  And truly, I thank you for your kindness."  Alice let curiosity get the better of her and continued, "If you like me, are not from this place...how did you arrive here?"

The White Queen shrugged and stepped away, and turned towards a path that led through the mushrooms and flowers and grass.  She pointed a long slender finger out, "Follow the path my dear. That is the best I can tell you, the path always leads me to my next move." 

Alice nodded and followed her direction, starting onto the path.  She remembered where she had seen the woman before, and turned saying, "I saw you before, that night with the music - oh! and the red stool."  But, when she looked, she found the woman had already vanished.  "People come and go here so quickly!"

She smoothed her dress down nervously before stepping onto the path.  Alone, small bits of memory drifted back from her dream, and from the handsome stranger that had invited her onto stage with him.  She was able to recall the drink he had given her, the smoke and flashing lights.  The rest of it was a haze of pulsing rhythm and dancing.  Alice was unsure how much of what she remembered was part of the dream, and shook her head to clear the memories away so she could focus on the path ahead. 

For awhile there was nothing on the path but the large and bright mushrooms, surrounded by bright green grass and beautiful tiny flowers.  Trying to keep her word to the White Queen, Alice did not stop to look more closely at the flowers or the mushrooms.  She felt that even if the White Queen had not told her where she was, or even what might be happening in this strange place, she had at least given an order that made sense.  She had indeed been lost on a forest path, and Alice found her spirits rose as she imagined this path eventually leading her back to her own forest, her own quiet house and her own bed.  

After a time, in which Alice could only track the movement of the shadows on the mushrooms and assumed several hours had gone by, she needed a rest.  Not daring to step off the path, Alice instead chose to sit where she stopped in the middle of the path.  While she rested, Alice saw that not too far from the path, passed two or three large mushrooms, there was a grove a trees.  She could not see any other trees in the distance, and down the path as far as she could see were only more mushrooms, more flowers, more grass.  She longed for some shade, and though the mushrooms were large, they were too low to the ground for her to sit under comfortably to provide any cool shadows.  

"Maybe I could leave a mark here on the path?  Or on that mushroom?  Something to let me know where I left off so that I could take a short rest in the shade of those nice trees and come right back when I was finished."  She reasoned with herself that it would only be for a short rest, and if she was lucky, the trees might also hold a small stream or pond where she could get a drink.  She was desperately thirsty and the thought of water was indeed an appealing one.

Alice gathered herself up and smoothed down her skirt hoping to shake off any dirt she might have acquired.  _This poor fine dress, my mother will be so upset to see how it has been treated.  But, I did not mean to get it in such a state._  Once she was on her feet, she drew a large circle in the dirt path with her foot.  The circle was large enough it touched the sides of the path, and so she traced a second, smaller circle inside it.  Then, she untied her apron and set it atop the first mushroom off the path in the direction of the grove.  After a second thought, she reached inside an apron pocket and drew out the fine white gloves she had taken from the small doll-like house and tucked them into the collar of her dress.  _They will be safer with me.  _She did not know what they would be safe from, by coming with her, but she felt better bringing them along.  Once that was settled, she threaded her way around a few large mushrooms and after a short time she stood on the edge of a grove of trees taller than any trees she had seen before in her life.  

She turned around to make sure the path still remained behind her, and to her surprise, it did.  She spotted her apron several mushrooms back and grinned that at least one thing had gone the way she had planned.  She stepped through two trees and was immediately relaxed by the cool shade she found waiting for her.  She looked around to find a decent tree to lean against - one still within sight of the path and her aproned mushroom and was able to find one quickly.  She knelt down, her legs tucked under her and to one side, and leaned her head against the cool tree.

She had not been there for very long when she heard singing.  She was certain it was coming, not from the forest, but somewhere out amidst the mushrooms.  She stood, dusting a few leaves of grass from her dress and began a slow walk back towards the path.  She kept an eye, or an ear more appropriately, open for the singing, but it was only once she was back on the path that she saw where she thought it might have been coming from.  She collected her apron as she moved back onto the path, and followed it for a bit before straying off it again.  

There was a cat, a dark charcoal and brown striped cat larger than any she had seen before, but a cat nonetheless, sitting on one of the mushrooms.  It's mouth was open, showing a frightening amount of sharp teeth, and she was positive the singing was coming from it.  Alice took a few tentative steps forward.  

"Excuse me?"  She had not wanted to talk to it, but a singing cat!  _Oh, imagine if Dinah could sing like that!_  It had a beautiful basso voice, and sang a lively melody, uninterrupted by Alice's question.  "Mister...Cat?"  She thought herself foolish for addressing the cat at all, but if he could sing, she assumed that he could also speak.  And the White Queen had not exactly been helpful earlier.  "Excuse me?"

She took a few more small steps forward, but before she could open her mouth to question him again, his dark green eyes snapped into focus on her and the singing stopped.    His eyes took a long lingering gaze over Alice, from her worn boots to her dirty and unkempt hair.  And while she was indeed a bit frightened, she also felt like his gaze had left a trail of oil or grease along her skin.  She shivered.

"Why are you interrupting me?"

His speaking voice was just as deep as it had been when he was singing, but Alice could not help but feel frightened to see such a large cat.  He was also so large, that she guessed he took up much the same amount of room on the mushroom as she had.  Despite his size and odd coloring, she felt he did not look that different from a house-cat.  Certainly he did not seem shaped like a more predatory jungle cat, though his tone and cold eyes did did betray some hunger in him.  

"Well you see," Alice started to call him 'cat' again, but thought better of it and continued, "I do not know what this place is, and I would very much like some help". 

"Help with what?" His deep voice was harsh, and Alice was very sorry she had interrupted him at all.

"Do you know what this place is?"

"Do you?"  He asked, not even venturing to hide the snideness in it.  "And what good would it do you if you did?"

She shook her head.  "I suppose, if I knew, I might be able to find my way home again."

"I would think you should know your way out of a place before you decide to go venturing about in it."  He huffed and raised a large paw, inspecting the dark pads on the underside.

"Normally, I do.  But I took a shortcut, and I did not mean to end up in such a place as I have."

"Where did you mean to end up then?"  

"At home.  You see, I had been at my sister's house, last...a few evenings back, and I took this path through the forest on my way home, and got lost."

"Oh, the forest changes often here, it is not surprising that you came that way."

"But where is...here?"  Alice did not mean to whine, but she was tired of walking of feeling scared and alone, of not having any answers and tired of not being home.

Somehow, he shrugged.  "Where is it not?"

Exasperated, Alice let out a large sigh.  "I suppose I will just be going then."  She was in no mood to continue what was a seemingly pointless conversation and with a cat no less!  

"If you like."  The cat grinned showing his frighteningly large teeth again, stretched both paws out, and shadows eeked out from under them as his body slid forward.  He rose up on all fours as the thick shadows rolled forward, down the side of the mushroom, and headed directly towards Alice.  

She scurried back from the mushroom and looked frantically for the path.  When she wheeled around, the path was there, but Alice found that it no longer led further into the strange mushroom forest.  She shook her head, _of course it will have moved.  _Instead, she was in a small clearing.  There were trees off a way, on most sides of the clearing and when she turned around the mushroom was alone, but still there, sans cat.  

For a moment, her memory brought up the nice young man in the purple suit from her dream.  He had been cryptic about her future, but at least he had been kind to her.  She could not say that about many of the people or things she had encountered thus far.  Of course, there had been the White Queen, but that had been an entirely useless conversation.  She had no mood for those anymore today, at the very least.  

She had only taken a few steps when a small brunette girl stepped out from the other side of the small clearing.  She looked surprised to see anyone else and took a step back.  She wore a pretty red dress, had a small basket draped over one arm, and her long dark hair tied in pig tails on either side of her head.  After Alice got over her own initial surprise, she took a few steps to close the distance between them, and looked the girl over with a smile.

"Where did you come from?"  Alice was grumpy, and did not take the effort to hide it from her voice.

"That is a good question."  The young brunette girl looked back over a shoulder at the dark forest behind her.  She shrugged, "I was walking down the path through the forest..."

Alice leaned to the side to get a good look around the girl, but was not able see any path through the trees.  "Well, I don't see a path."

"I know," the girl turned around completely around to join Alice in looking at the trees.  The shadows were heavy under the snarl of twisted branches and thick leaves. The brunette heaved a heavy sigh and fidgeted with the basket over her arms.  

"So why don't you tell me what happened?  Maybe I can help?"

The young girl set the basket on the ground and flopped onto the grass, gathering her knees up in her arms.  Alice checked around for a nice clear spot in the grass and sat facing the girl, spread out her skirt out and smoothed down her dress apron.  She looked the younger girl over: her dark hair, pigtails, pretty and clean red dress, and saw how tired and confused the girl looked.  Alice, having had a bizarre time of everything herself, saw the girl's face and felt it looked much like she imagined her own did.

"This morning, my mother made a large breakfast."  She pointed to the basket at her side.  "There was too much for just she and I, so she sent me out to take the remainder to my grandmother's house."

Alice nodded and listened with interest. 

"Grandmother doesn't live too far, I only had to follow the path and take her breakfast."  The girl's gaze darted around the clearing looking for the absent path.  "But, I don't know what happened."

"Well, I am new here myself but I have found it is not at all unusual for this place to lose a path, or confuse a traveler."  Alice gave the girl a soft smile.  "I, just today have found myself in several strange and frustrating situations."  

The girl returned Alice's smile with a shy one of her own, "Truly?"

"Oh my yes. As a matter of fact, I just left a strange singing cat sitting on a mushroom."

"It sang?"

"And was mildly insulting, but I cannot say I was entirely pleasant to him either."

The girl giggled but only for a moment, darkness crossing her face as she remembered her own dilemma.  The two of them sat quietly for a moment, both of them scanning the surroundings: Alice looked for any sign of the anything that might be helpful, including her own path and the girl, hoped to spot the path to grandmother's house.  Suddenly, Alice jumped up, and reached down toward the girl, her bright blue eyes sparkling.  

"I have an idea, come on!"  The girl grabbed Alice's hand and pulled herself up.  She grabbed her basket and folded the handles over her free hand and waited for Alice's instruction.  "So, I was coming from that direction," she gestured behind her with her free hand.  "And you, appeared here right here, so you must've been coming from that direction," she pointed across the clearing to the forested area in front of them.

The girl nodded, "I think so."

"Well, I am sure we cannot go the way I came and I have not seen any house that looks like it belongs to a nice grandmother.  And, I was looking for a path of my own to follow, so I will go with you."

"You will?"

"Of course.  Maybe, if I go with you, I can help you find your path.  Maybe help you start over, find the beginning of it, so you can find your grandmother's house."

The girl nodded, and the two of them set off toward the shadowed forest.  As they stepped under the branches, the girl tightened her grip on Alice's hand.  She shrugged the arm holding her basket to adjust it closer to herself and looked up at Alice hoping to find reassurance in her her new friend's face.  

"My mother told me stories about the woods.  It's why I am supposed to stay on the path.  Mother said there were madmen and crazed animals that would attack if I strayed from the path."

"I understand," Alice said thinking of all the strangers and frightening things she had come across in the past days.  "Don't think about those stories now, just think about the path and your grandmother's house.  Maybe it will help us find the beginning."

"Alright."  The girl closed her eyes, and after a moment her grip on Alice's hand loosened.  "The path is just dirt, at the end of a long road out of our neighborhood.  I always like to stand at the beginning of it, because it has beautiful flowers.  Bright red ones, like my dress."

"Sounds pretty."  Alice thought of the garden she had so wished to see on her first night here, and hoped that some flowers might brighten her day.

Alice and the girl wandered for several minutes through the forest.  The shadows were thick but they walked slowly, and traveling was not so difficult if they kept an eye on their footsteps.  It reminded Alice of the forest near her own house, of the place where she had gotten lost and she shook her head and pushed back the memory.  Still, she thought, it would not hurt to remain watchful, and she hoped they might both find a way home.  And if nothing else she wanted to make sure that neither of them tripped over any random forest bookshelves.  

She scanned the trees and shadows surrounding them, and spotted a cat high in a tree not too far from where she and the young girl walked.  She stopped, thinking to point it out to her young companion but before she could speak, he had disappeared.  The girl looked at her questioningly, but Alice only waved them onward.  

"Just like a cat," she murmured.

After Alice's cat sighting, they were both silent for a long time as they carefully picked their way through the darkness and tangled forest floor.  Finally, one of them had reason to speak, as Alice exclaimed, "I see them!  I think those are your flowers!"  There was indeed a tiny field of bright red flowers a short distance in front of them.  There too, was a path shadowed by so many trees nearby on all sides.

The girl dropped Alice's hand and ran towards the flowers, dress billowing around her, both of her hands tight on the basket to keep it closed.  As the girl ran through the trees, Alice caught another glimpse of the strange cat, high up in the trees.  She stopped, and focused on the trees above her trying to see through the leaves and shadows above her.  When she looked back for the young girl, there was only flash of red on the far end of the other clearing.  Alice watched as darkness coalesced near the patch of flowers, hiding it from view.  She did not even have time to step towards the clearing before there was a long high-pitched scream: one of a frightened young girl.  Alice ran towards the darkness, watching for the red dress, but there were only more trees and darkness.  

She let out a whimper.  "I did not even think to ask her name."

Alice searched for the girl until her eyes hurt from the strain and her legs could barely hold her upright.  The flowers they had searched for were long gone with the girl, leaving only dead grass and ominous trees.  There were patches where the grass seemed greener, and Alice kept waiting for the girl to appear, or anyone that might be able to help her.  But the night was long, and no one appeared.  The shadows moved from the trees to the ground around her as night passed over the forest.  

On the other side, the sun rose and shone down on a large table with several tall wingback chairs and what looked like the beginnings of morning tea.  Alice stumbled down a hill finding a chair with her toes before she saw the setting in front of her.  

Exhausted, she paid no notice to the two gentlemen sitting at the table and found what looked like the most plush, most soft, most comfortable chair at the table and flopped herself down on it.  She found it was not as comfortable as she hoped for, but once she was sat down she did not have the energy left to stand again in search of a more comfortable chair.  She grabbed her foot and nursed it for a moment before she looked up at the setting around her.

She quickly realized she was not alone at the table and said, "Please excuse me sirs, but I'm dreadfully tired.  It has been a long day, and I just need a moment to rest my feet."

Neither of the men moved, and taking their silence for acceptance she closed her eyes and sunk even further into the chair. She was slumped more than seated and since it did not seem to bother her hosts, so she did not let her poor posture bother her.  It was nearly impossible to remember lady-like behavior when she was hungry and tired and so sore she felt there was no any part of her that did not feel it.  She may have imagined it, but she felt like she dozed before a man's deep voice woke her.  

She leaned forward and took in her surroundings as the sleep faded from her, but only saw one of the two men she remembered.  Not wanting to seem rude, and not knowing what the man had said to wake her, she choose to begin with an introduction.

 "Hello, I'm Alice."

The table was was longer than any dining table she had seen before, and it seemed every bit of its surface was covered in plates or cups or glasses or candles.  Most all of the cups and glasses and plates had some sort of food or drink in them, and though she was eager to eat something, she looked to her host first.  The sort of wild-eyed man with neatly combed dark hair had leaned forward at the same time she had, seemed to leer at her from beneath dark bushy eyebrows.  There was a large (entirely too large, she thought) brown top hat precariously balanced on the left side of his head.  

His thin pale lips curved in a smile and his hands came together maniacally as he said, "Welcome, Alice".

"Thank you."

The light from the candles on the table was bright, but cast odd shaped shadows that creeped and danced along the table, and the strange man's face.  Neither man seemed to mind, and when the man, gestured to the table and told her to help herself, she did not think twice before tucking in.

While she ate she looked around the table for the second man she remembered, but did not see him, nor any man-shaped shadowed areas where he might have been at the table.  Between bites of a light, tasty cake, she asked, "Did you not have another friend for tea when I arrived?"

The man chuckled, the sound of which raised gooseflesh on Alice's arms.  "Yes, but dear Marchie went to run an errand."  He shrugged.  "You looked so tired, and were asleep for so long it did not seem right to bother you."

Feeling embarrased and sligthly reproached, Alice blushed.  "I am sorry about my intrusion.  I came upon your table after a very long night in the woods.  I could barely stand anymore by the time I reached your table."  She forced herself to stop eating and poured herself a small cup of tea.  It smelled sweet and fruity, and she added nothing to it before taking a long drink.

While Alice went back to her meal and further cups of the delightful tea at her side, the man was silent and after a few minutes, she forgot him altogether.  She thought about how dark it was outside, aside from their tableful of candles, and realized she must have slept most of the day away.  She thought about the young girl in the red dress and how she could have slept not knowing what had become of the girl, and tears welled in her eyes.

Alice pushed the plate of food away from her and leaned back her large chair.  Her neck was stiff from sleeping so deeply, and so awkwardly in the chair.  She stretched her arms, but felt a resistance against her legs as she tried to move them about.  She flailed a moment trying to move enough to see what was holding her legs down.  There was a sudden resistance against her arms as well, as they were caught fast with a rope and brought down to the arms of her chair.  There was a tearing noise as the apron from Alice's dress was ripped from her waist.  She struggled but could not get the rope to loosen.

"Please don't fight it dear."  The man whispered.

His breath was warm breath in her ear, heavy and smelling of strong tea.  Alice could barely focus on him, and berated herself for getting lost in the forest, both of them.  If she had not taken the short cut after leaving Lorinda's house, or tried to find the beautiful garden, or disregarded the White Queen's very clear instructions, she might have saved herself so much trouble.

She heard a ripping noise as the man shredded her dress apron into ribbons and used what he could to tighten her restraints to the chair.  He pushed her back against the chair, and wound a long strip across her shoulders and behind the chair to hold her in place.  He let his hand linger on her skin, at her neck and she shuddered under his touch in repulsion.  His hat, so precariously balanced, rested on her head as he leaned against her and his trousers brushed against her hand.

Alice tried not to feel it when his body shuddered, reacting to the feel of her pressed against him.  She tried to curl her hand up, or to pull it free from the binding, but when the mad man groaned and rested more of himself on her, she stopped struggling and closed her eyes.  If she could not see him, she hoped she could focus more on not feeling him either.

When she stopped struggling against the rope and makeshift apron bindings, the man caressed her hands, her face, pushing her wild hair back from her face.  She felt his breath on her neck, followed by small dry kisses.  A strangled whimper escaped her lips as he ripped at the bodice of her dress, and dry scratchy hands slipped underneath.  She tried again to pull herself forward and away from the chair.

"There's no need to struggle, not now sweet Alice."  

She opened her eyes as the weight of him receded; the sky had grown dark with the transition to night on the forest clearing.  Even the candles on the table flickered as if the weight of the darkness had rid them of the need to burn.  Her skin prickled as she looked over the table and realized the man had moved behind her chair, but the shadows of him crawled over her exposed flesh.  

"Please let me go," she managed the words to sound more calm than she felt.  He chuckled, and the shadows around them, rippled like water in the wake of his laughter.

"The shadows that find you will be the shadows that consume you, and all shadows must come here."  He cackled madly, and she felt his warm and rough hands on her shoulders where her dress had been torn away.

_He is more than mad, _she thought, _It is too much!_   _There is lecherous and crazed man in the dignified hat, a hat clearly above his station, whispering in my ear and it is more than I can take._

Alice shook.  He whispered to her of her own death, and she felt she must be close to another breakdown.  She though there were not many tears left in her, not really, not after everything she had been through, but moments like that deserve some tears.  Worst of all there were no friends for her to turn to: no sweet handsome stranger to carry her off to a soft bed, no White Queen to give her directions on how she could survive the mess she had found.  She wriggled her arms again, though they were chafed from the bonds.  

"Don't worry lovely Alice, my friend has gone to find the Queen.  She will know what to do with you.  And me, well I just love rewards, I love prizes -- oh! maybe she will give me a new hat!"  The Hatter exclaimed this as he took time away from his tormenting whispers and drummed his long fingers together.  His excitement made his face contort, and his twisted glee made Alice cringe.

Moreover, the thoughts of the Queen made Alice uneasy.  She was certain that her disobedience to the White Queen's instructions meant she would be quite disappointed, but did he speak of the same Queen?  Surely, she thought, the White Queen could not be so evil as the one he described, no matter what she had done or not.  Many of the Hatter's descriptions of what the Queen might do to her brought a blush to her cheeks,  and warmed her as though her blood were to burn her from the inside.  And she could help but believe him, so much of what she had seen left her mind crazed and full of shadows.  She tried however try to get some grip on her mental state as the Hatter danced about madly thinking of his own prizes.  She knew that she would never wish to be so very mad as he seemed.

Alice struggled again, her chilled arms warmed by new trickles of blood escaped from her shoulders and wrists.  Her legs bare; stockings long removed though she could not quite remember if she even had them when she woke up in the mushroom forest.  Her legs were also bound and while she tried to move with some bit of stealth to wiggle her bonds, she found her ankles wet and the Hatter paid her some attention again.  Looked down, she avoided regarding him directly, but it was too late; he stalked back to her and loomed over her chair.  He leered down, and she felt the blush in her cheeks once more as his eyes slowly combed over her, head to toe, and only stopped in places that made her squirm.

It was in that moment a small sliver of moonlight crawled over them both, and when they looked to its origin, found more had come to watch.  There was a tall pale woman with hair red as flames and eyes that Alice could not make out from the shadows.  The woman, this Queen, was not the White Queen she had met, and Alice longed for the kindness she had seen in the White Queen's pale eyes.  The woman swept forward, a long black dress and cape billowed around her.  She paid no attention to the Hatter, her eyes on Alice as she drew ever closer.  The Hatter, Alice saw in a sidelong glance, had removed his hat and was bowed to pay homage to the woman's presence.  He stepped away from Alice's chair, and she used the moment to take a breath, to blink, and to brace herself for what would come beyond that moment. 

The Queen, took her time to reach Alice's chair.  And in those long moments as Alice begun to sweat from anxiety, she could also see a a few men step out from the woman's shadow.  The shadows grew deeper as the moonlight retreated in the Queen's wake, and Alice could only make out the men if she squinted.  She recognized the tall rabbit, the one with the hat to match the Hatter's and there was pride on his face.  It was he that had left to retrieve the Queen; that had left her with the Hatter and his mad and frightening babblings of death and despair.  He noticed Alice's gaze, and winked.  From her side, she heard whispered ramblings from the Hatter.  Then, a ripple passed beneath the rabbit's fur which caused his face to twitch and spasm. Alice blinked to clear away what she thought were shadows from her vision, and only found the rabbit's face far more human.  With another ripple, his fur and his ears were gone completely and he was joined by other members of the Queen's party, he as human as the rest of them.  She could not reconcile the face before her with the rabbit she had known, and looked away.  She did not want to try to determine between halucinations and bizarre machinations of the place she wished so badly to leave.  It spurred her once more to twist her arms and legs in their bonds.

More quickly than Alice could blink, the Queen was upon her, having needed only to see her struggle to hasten her movements.  She was close enough for Alice to touch, though not with her bound hands, but with her own face on the Queen's, if she had so desired.  A chill swept across her skin, and brought up gooseflesh with it.  The woman's gaze lingered as long as it took for Alice to take in a deep breath, and then so quietly Alice was unsure if it was even said aloud, the woman said, "Please do not struggle.  It is such a waste."

The Queen did not elaborate on what her struggles might be a waste of, but Alice's imagination gave her enough thoughts that kept her from asking.  Then, with one deft hand, the woman swept a long strand of blonde hair from her Alice's shoulder, and with the same motion brushed her cool fingers against Alice's neck.  It was a soft caress, and had her skin not already been covered in gooseflesh, that touch would have done it.  Alice tried to lean away from the woman, at least to move her neck and head out from under the woman's fingers, and was successful only in getting the woman to hold her head still.  And it did not prevent her from watching as the woman's shadowed eyes drank in the sight of her: cheeks where tears had dried, lips dry and cracked, chest where only the last decency was preserved by her torn dress, the last of the apron just touching her thigh where it should meet long white stockings.  While she gazed, the Queen moved back slightly, and left only enough room for her other hand to trace a line across each place where her sight paused on Alice's skin.  Despite the chill, warmth under her skin rose to the surface as if to greet the stranger's fingertips, leaving a blush even after both hand and gaze had gone.

After a long pause, the woman chuckled, a sound that began in her throat but ended with exhaled breath that left a bubble of silence in its wake.  Alice held her own breath and somehow understood that any movement would bring the attention of the Queen back on her.  From somewhere behind the Queen, there was a sound like a gasp, but Alice was unable to look around before the woman has bent over her once more.  Her movements were slow and deliberate, and the Queen crouched unladylike, to bring her shadowed face level with Alice's.  It was easier for Alice to see behind the Queen then, and she saw the men had come closer.  Hatter also stepped closer, his cloying scent reached Alice's nose.  He was amused, and watched both she and the Queen together: the sight he had been so eager to see.  

Alice caught a flash of movement to one side of the Hatter, and she watched as shadows crept along the face of a man she did not recognize.  To Alice, it felt like long hours passed as the shadows crawled across and finally away from the man.  Each shadow became thicker and darkened their surroundings until she had no where to look except the face of the red-haired Queen.  The woman grinned, and Alice felt flames on her face as long, sharp incisors grew from the Queen's mad smile.  In a flash, Alice's face was buried in the Queen's hair, and a pressure built on her neck and around her head.  There was a heavy weight on her, and she heard a deep ripping sound but did not have the energy to scream when she realized what had made the noise.  Before she passed into sleep Alice felt the warmth of blood on her shoulder, in her hair, and down her arm and chest. 

She woke with a head full of what felt like stuffing, but when she reached up to feel at it, she found only hair (though it was a little sticky).  Her dress had been fixed or replaced, she was not sure which, but it was the same cornflower blue as the one she had worn to Lorinda's house.  Her apron was in one piece and her shoes were dark and as shiny as they would have been fresh from the shop.  Slowly, she moved to a sitting position and looked to see where she had ended up this time.  She was much surprised to see the calm surroundings of her parent's sitting room.  They were not around, nor did she hear them wandering the house; so Alice assumed it was in the late hours of evening.  There were no lit lamps and it was difficult to see much of anything, but accustomed as she was to the house she did not have a problem getting to her feet.  First, she whirled to find the mirror above the fireplace and inspected herself.  The dress and shoes seemed in place, but she remembered the awful woman that had attacked her, and was curious what damage had been done.  In the darkness she inspected her face as best she could but found no damage - though she was paler than she expected.  

Alice did notice her hair was a mess, and reached a tentative hand up to smooth it down as best she could.  It was sticky, and there were dark patches that were badly tangled for her hand to glide easily through.  She huffed unhappily and turned her back to the mirror.  Her belly rumbled loudly, and she could not remember the last time she had eaten.  She thought of the tea the Hatter had offered her, and her stomach lurched at memory.  Using a hand to steady herself she carefully picked her way through the house to the kitchen, finding it dark also.  She lit a small candle and opened the pantry to look for something to eat.  She found a small loaf of bread, grabbed only a small chunk for herself so her mother would not notice it missing in the morning, and took giant unladylike bites to sate her growing hunger.  _I know its not much, but it will have to do.  _

Hunger and revulsion knotted her stomach. She could not keep the bread down, and when it was all out of her system, she reached for something to drink.  Something nearby smelled good to her, but nothing she could find would stay put.  After the fourth (or fifth) attempt to eat something, she left the kitchen in search of something else.  She felt mad, crazed indeed as she stumbled up the stairs to her room.  

Alice slept.  When she woke, it was dark and the house was silent.  She found herself once more in the living room, on the floor, with stiff joints and in the same clothes she had worn for the past week.  When she stood, a reflection in the mirror over the mantle caught her eye.  She stepped closer, and saw a beautiful garden so realistic that she felt she could reach through and touch it.  The sky over the garden was dark, but she had no trouble making out a small stone pathway nearby and beautiful flowers, rosebushes and fruit trees lining all sides.  

She sighed, and knew it was the same garden she had seen so long ago reflected in a window that had only led her to more darkness.  But, something in her felt compelled to step out onto the path, to smell the flowers and pluck fruit from the trees.  She was not hungry at that moment, but knew nothing in her parents house would satisfy her it, when the hunger came back.

Somewhere near the back of the garden as she watched the trees and flowers wave in a breeze she could not feel, a flash of red caught her attention.  She stepped closer to the mirror for a better look, and saw a young girl in a bright red dress and brunette braids picking flowers.  She felt compelled to find a way into the garden, to see her young friend again and to ask her name.

While many of the troubles she had faced in her recent experience had simply vanished on their own, she did not think this one would.  No handsome, rakish stranger was going to offer her a drink and, no beautifully pale queen would present a path for her to follow.  She was on her own shoulders this time, as she should be.  How quickly things could change; how quickly people could appear, or disappear again.  But the same thing, she had discovered, could be said about challenges as well.  They seemed to have a mind of their own, and popped in and out when they deemed her a necessary competitor.  

_The key, _she thought, _is all about how quickly I can figure out the problems when they do choose to arrive._  She patted the pockets on her dress apron for reassurance.  Strangely, she was surprised to find a bundle that was the long white gloves inside one of the pockets.  She took them out of her pocket and slipped them on her hands, as a sort of reminder that there were some pleasant things, things that had not turned out all wrong, in that place. 

She pulled one of her parents sturdy wooden stools over toward the fireplace, raised herself atop it so her knees rested on the stool, carefully making sure that her black dress shoes didn't clack against the wood as her feet hung behind her.  The mirror had featured so prominently in her childhood, and she thought about how many times she had stared at it, daydreaming, during long photography sessions.  Hesitantly, she patted her pockets again, smoothed her apron down, and her hair after a second thought, and reached out a nervous hand.  "The key is simple," she whispered as her hand slipped through the cool mirrored surface and passed her own smiling reflection, "I'm sure of it, I need to be there, and so I shall."

**EPILOGUE**

_"But it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."_   
_~Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll ~_

The White Queen left a few bills on the bar for her tab and quietly slipped out of the bar. When DJ cranked the Drum 'n Bass, and the lights flashed, and the crowd pressed in, she knew she had enough. Even outside in the cool night air the building, with the heavy door closed behind her, the building seemed to vibrate in a swirling aura of hysteric activity.

She pulled her trench coat closed, belting it securely against the night wind. Something about the place had reminded her of Alice.  The scene of her sister's red hair smothering the last of Alice's breath called itself up in her memory.  She remembered the pleasure she felt when Red had drained Alice to the last drop.  Though she had not been there, she had felt the ecstasy as her sister and her goons had fed and played and eventually buried the girl so she could be reborn; dancing on her fresh grave.  Time would never dull such sensations from her memory.

Red streaks of light played across her eyes and hunger doubled her over where she stood.  She could smell it, the shadows and the blood filled her senses and when the pangs subsided she ran.  _If you want to get anywhere you have to run twice as fast._

It did not take long, the house was not far, and she could run very fast when time called for it.  Thankfully, anyone walking the streets near the witching hour were not in any state to notice the extra breeze created by her passing.  When she arrived, she took a moment to rearrange herself, smoothing down her hair and straightening her coat and the white dress beneath it.  

Despite the early hour, the house was bright from the outside.  Her sister did like to put on a show, especially if she thought she might be receiving guests.  And the White Queen knew that she could hardly hide her arrival from Red.   Out of a long standing habit, she rang the doorbell and waited for the door to swing open.  

Red stood on the other side of the foyer, and when the door opened, she smiled.

"Hello, my dear - dear sister."

White stepped over the threshold, and felt the snapping sensation of the shadow protection built into the house fall around her.  

"Red."  Her sister never looked any different: hair dark and red as fresh blood and clothes to match.

The both stepped forward and met each other halfway through the brightly lit and intimately and extravagantly appointed foyer.  Red swept a hand across her sister's pale hair, pushing it back from her shoulders.  She leaned in an placed a chaste kiss on White's lips and whispered, "I knew you couldn't stay away tonight."

"Of course you knew.  What's the point of having a twin if you don't know what they're thinking?"  White let annoyance lace her words.  The predictability and heightened sensations that came with having a twin had worn off many, many years ago. 

"And where's Cait, dear?  Alice will be sad to have missed him."

"Working.  I don't need him at my side like you keep so many of your _companions_."  She brushed passed Red and stayed clear of the slowly creeping shadows near the walls, as she moved for the staircase across the hall.

Her sister huffed.  "Well that's just fine by me.  I never understood your need of him."

"You're just jealous, Red.  He had her first, and that eats at you."

"Whatever."  Her sister waved a red-gloved hand at the stairs, "Just go on up.  She will be waiting for you."

She took the stairs in large strides, two at a time, and crossed the long corridor to Alice's room.  Anticipation gnawed at her, and several times she had to shake her head just to make she could focus enough to avoid the shadows that had followed behind her.  The door to Alice's room was open just a crack, and just as she raised her hand to knock she heard a quite and sweet voice say, "Come in". 

Alice sat in a large chair, her legs propped up on a small ottoman in front of her, in order to better balance a book on them.  Her long blonde hair was tied back with a dark blue ribbon, and both it and the ribbon swept down over a shoulder in front of her.  She put her book aside as the White Queen entered and her blue eyes shone sweetly as she gestured for an empty chair nearby.

"I'm glad you came."

"I wouldn't missed your un-birthday dear," she avoided the chair, and instead stooped to sit next to Alice's feet on the ottoman.  Once Alice moved her feet to the ground, she leaned in and placed a small kiss on her cheek.  

"Still sad, White?"

"I am always happy to see you Alice." She scooped Alice's hands up in her own,  "But I will always be sad that you have an un-birthday to celebrate at all."  

  
_"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."_   
~Lewis Carroll~

  
**THE END**


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